Baby chicks and ponies!

We went to a party Friday afternoon for Jett's little friend Maxx's 3rd birthday. There was a mobile petting zoo at Maxx's house. Jett now wants some baby chickens and a pony.

Don't we all...

Drew's big news...

I know it sounds so cliche, and is really just something people say for lack of anything else...but "Where does the time go?" Seriously, Drew is BIG. Drew is cute, and smart, and a smarty pants, and loud, and obnoxious and I love him so insanely much. He's big now though and this is something that is fun and extrememly un-nerving. I am finding that I like this stage. He can have a real conversation with me, give ideas and opinions. He has his own "style", doesn't mind "skinny" jeans and loves his shaggy hair. He talks about girls and absolutely adores his little brother more each day.

Drew made his own decision that changed his eternity forever. All by himself, he prayed at bedtime last month to have Jesus come live in his heart forever. He totally caught me off guard and as I peeked over at him with his eyes closed, my heart exploded. I had to turn my head so he wouldn't see me tearing up. I am so grateful that the Lord keeps showing me that Matt and I are doing things right, cause boy does he know we wonder sometimes! After a long conversation and questions this week, Drew has also decided that he is ready to be baptised. He will meet with our children's pastor at church and then, on November 6th at West Ridge Church, Pastor Brent will baptize him. My heart is overflowing.

Our summer in a picture nutshell.

It zooms on by at a pace that gets faster and faster every year. I had so much fun staying home with the boys this summer. I have chosen a few of my favorite pictures from the last few months to detail our favorite season.

When we weren't at the ballfield, we were often being pretty lazy!

We took pool safety very seriosuly! (This picture CRACKS ME UP!!!)

We played outside...

Jett got his curls cut off. :(

Drew rocked at beach volleyball!

We had a fabulous vacation with our extended family.

We served our community through outreach.

And, Matt and I are about to add another great year of marriage to our list.

Blessed Indeed.

Our little all-star!

Well, that was sure fun! We made some great friends and some great memories this summer while traveling around north GA with the 6u all-star Powder Springs Seminoles. Drew learned so much being a part of this team. The boys took home one first place trophy, one second place trophy and ended up playing in the semi-finals in the state tournament. Not too shabby!! We have a ton of pictures, but I will just post a few.

Potty training is like child birth...

Someone else told me this "Potty training is like child birth because if you remembered all the yucky details, you'd never have another child!" This is so true! It also gave me comfort in knowing I wasn't the only one that can not remember the slightest thing about potty training Drew. This somewhat monumental event in his life has left my memory completely!

So, I am starting fresh. Jett, in the last 3 days, has done awesome!! He is wearing big boy undies around the house and only had one poop accident (those undies got thrown in the trash!). He sometimes tells me he needs to go and when he doesn't, I take him anyway. I thought he was too young, but he is surprising me!

It looks like a coin slot...to a 2 year old...

Wellllll...can you tell what this is?

No? I'll help you out. It is a disassembled Play Station 3. Which, in good health, looks like this:

After disassemly, the culprit of the non-function and loud clancky sound when shaken was:

placed so innocently by this little rascal:

The surgery was performed carefully by Matt and my dad. We gathered around once completed to watch if the machine had survived...waiting anxiously for the disc that had been inside all along to seamlessly eject. Drew cheered with excitement at the site of the blinking green light and Alvin and Chipmunks popping right out. Good as new. Nice work, surgeons, nice work.

What a life we lead.

What an amazing, chaotic, beautiful, stressful, extremely blessed life we lead! I haven't updated in over 2 months. The crazy thing about it is that it seems like it was last week. I swear the wind blew and April was gone. Good thing I take my camera most places, just so I have some sort of proof that it did actually exist and that we lived through it.

Spring Baseball has consumed what feels like every night since mid March. There was an opening ceremony and a parade. The boys had a blast painting the banner and tossing (well beaming, really) candy at the parents sitting on the sidewalks.

Drew's league got to be involved in the Atlanta Braves Little League Night at Turner Field. All the teams in our league were able to walk around the outfield with their coaches. While it was so exciting to see all our little guys in the big field, Drew was sound asleep in the stands by the 5th inning. :)

And...just last week, we found out that Drew made the all star team!! We are so, so proud of him for truly busting his tail at tryouts. It was a good lesson on working hard for something you really want. He wanted it and he got it! His all star team will play in 6 tournaments over June and July. It will be long, hot days at the ballfield, but I am excited to watch him play this summer. He truly has developed a love for the game over the last year. Makes his daddy proud (and mommy too!). :)

Easter was really fun this year. Drew "taught" us what he learned in church about what the true meaning of Easter is and that simply melted my heart. It lead to us having a real conversation about Christ and what it means to have him in your heart. He is such an awesome kid that gets smarter and more entertaining every day. Jett was just old enough to really understand the concept of hunting for eggs and it took about 2 seconds for him to discover that there was CANDY inside!!

Matt forced me to take Jett to get his hair cut last week. We compromised on a "trim". I just wasn't ready to part with his cute blonde curls.

The next day he had his personal photoshoot to celebrate his upcoming big birthday. Here is a sneak peak:

Today we celebrated Jett's 2nd birthday with a family BBQ. It was small and perfect. The look on his face when he sees balloons is priceless. A friend made his cake and it turned out FABULOUS!! Becky can be contacted here: Cake Ops Cakery.

Cousins and a few friends...

Tomorrow is Monday and we will have another busy week including Drew having baseball Monday-Thursday night. As draining as it is, seeing him smile when he makes and play is totally worth every minute of it. :)

The little things I will miss.

Last night, while washing my hair, I kept stepping on little bath toys that somehow had made it into the bottom of our stand up shower in the master bathroom. My initial thought was "Geez, I can not wait until I can have my bathroom back to myself!"(well, and Matt of course) Then...I stopped mid-thought and realized how sad of a day that really would be. To not have bath toys in my shower would have to mean that my boys would be too big for bath toys, too independent to want to bathe in our bathroom at all. And, I know that day is quickly approaching. How sad the day will be when I won't hear their sweet voices in the middle of the night or the day when I won't have to walk to the bus stop, or scrub muddy baseball pants until my hands hurt. How lonely I will be to not have someone little always here that wants to play games with me or dance around the living room. Time is passing so quick and even quicker the next day. I thank God for this realization though. So this afternoon, tomorrow, next month and so on, I hope to be able to cherish these little "hassles" that I know will disapper well before I am ready. I want to think of them as little treasures and be able to remember them always. I take lots of pictures because I do know that we often forget. We forget LOTS. Especially lots of the "little" events...like simply playing outside in the yard or hugging a grandparent. My hope is that my boys will miss these little events too one day and be so thankful for all the pictures. Here are some from our outside play yesterday afternoon. Drew wanted me to get a shot of him jumping the curb on his scooter and did it over and over until I could get a good one of him in the air! :) Love that kid!

This is the scooter Popsy and G-mommy gave him for Christmas. It *SPARKS* and he thinks it is the coolest thing EVER!

A shower for baby Micah!

A few weeks ago, I had the honor of helping host a baby shower for one of my favorite people on this planet! Lydia and I have known each other since the 6th grade and I am so lucky to call her a best friend. She is one of those friends that I actually "do life with" and I can't imagine my life without her a phone call away. Micah will be her first baby and should make his debut in about 7 weeks. Hosting with other friends, Mandy and Lauren (and Lauren's mother's help & gorgeous home), her shower turned out absolutely fantastic! We had a seated brunch with delicious food, then dessert outside around the pool. Micah is so lucky to be getting such an awesome mom and dad!



Micah's gift from his Auntie Jen was a warm blanket and some burp cloths made just for him (UGA colors, of course):